I'd say having your house fall to a third of its value while your electricity bill triples is a perfectly rational argument for opposing a data center. If the data center is that valuable, pay the residents current market value for their property and give them a million dollars to uproot their life. Letting giant corporations impose massive costs on the folks that don't have the money to buy politicians is not an efficient outcome.

Props to these folks for protecting their community. Maybe they can build the data center in your backyard instead :).

Datacentres aren't mills. Mills employed hundreds of people and mill owners invested in property to house the workforce in the local area.

Data centres are mostly ran remotely, employing a handful of people to watch a fence line.